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Cheerz,

Recently, after a long trip I have noticed that the car started to use too much oil, 1L+ for 2000km (before I was adding 0.5-1.0L along 15000km and changing it afterwards). So I started to look where the leak was coming from and it seems that it is the ignition distributor causing the problem. Unfortunately I have remembered to take the pictures only after the disassemble and some cleaning, but the red zone, in the following picture, indicates where I had the oil spot, propagated to the lower parts of the engine.

Leaking part

So the questions are:

1) What is actually causing the oil leak? The rubber between the ignition distributor and the cap(that rubber was full of oil and actually with bad quality)? I have been reading a bit about it, seems that also can be the O-ring?

2) How I can actually disassemble the distributor further? There are 3 small bolts attaching the plastic part to metal, but I will not be able to remove it in any way, because of the rotor. I have a picture from another side, I see small stopper(?) there (see the picture below).

The "stopper"

3) Before fully disassembling it, what are the marks which are needed to be done? I have understood the importance of the marks, after not putting it back correctly yesterday and having acceleration problems today :D (which I already got fixed).

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  • You found the excess oil coming out from under the distributor cap and draining out? If so, I'd suggest the shaft seal is probably bad. You should be able to punch the pin out (which you can see in the pic), then pull the collar off of the shaft. This would allow you to get to the seal. As far as alignment, use a scribe to make a small mark on both the collar and the shaft. If a scribe isn't available, use a grease pencil, but ensure you don't rub it off getting things apart. If the seal is bad, it would pump oil right up into the distributor and make a big mess. Aug 15, 2016 at 15:09
  • @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 as far as I remember the cap was clean inside, but the seal which is connecting two plastic parts, in the bottom, was full of oil (I checked on another picture I have). I will try to get all the seals and replace them all at one go.
    – Serhiy
    Aug 16, 2016 at 6:39
  • Common on Japanese distributors, if you disassemble the dist (pull the shaft) there is a seal on the top side of the housing, I did this on my 89 Honda accord with Hitachi distributor, found the seal on ebay for cheap.
    – Moab
    Aug 16, 2016 at 22:30

2 Answers 2

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As mentioned there may likely be a shaft seal issue, however I would also check engine breathers etc as the internal pressure may be too high forcing oil to weap through the weakest seal.

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  • I guess engine breathers cannot be checked without a specialist? I will try to replace the seals first, which sounds like a cheapest solution at the moment.
    – Serhiy
    Aug 16, 2016 at 6:36
  • You can check general crankcase pressure just by running the engine, once its warmed.. Remove the oil filler cap and see if excess pressure blows out (have a rag handy as a little oil could splash out too) there is always a little pressure but it shouldn't blow out as if its built up behind the oil filler cap. Try it a few times.. Replace the cap for 10 seconds at a time, then remove it again.. If pressure is continually building up and blowing out from the filler hole it could indicate restricted breathers etc, which can create a leak at a weaker point e.g your distributor seal.
    – Orb
    Aug 16, 2016 at 7:11
  • OK, going to try that, maybe you are right and it could be the pressure..
    – Serhiy
    Aug 16, 2016 at 7:13
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OK, basically I have checked the oil pressure like mentioned in one of the answers and it was fine (basically could not detect any oil jumping from cap hole).

For now I am going to replace the seals and see if the issue persists. Just to make sure if someone will need the information (was a bit hard for me to find actually), the outer seal(O-ring) code is: MD619990. The inner seal code is: Honda 91209612003 (yes it is compatible with the model of the ignition distributor of my car).

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  • Both seals replaced, oil not leaking anymore.
    – Serhiy
    Jan 9, 2017 at 13:10

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